Aud and Becky Brown
Aud Brown was born in Clay County, North Carolina in 1950. His parents were Ralph and L.B. Lance Brown. He was raised up in church, with Bible readings being a common occurrence in their home. He came to know Christ when he was ten years old at Sweetwater Baptist Church. Much of what his family ate came from their farm, which he notes was common during the period in which he grew up. Aud graduated high school in 1968 before attending Young Harris College for two years. During these first years of higher education, he was called to preach which would become a primary focus in his life. He was married in 1970 and returned to college at Garner Webb in 1973 which proved difficult as he was pastoring New Martins Creek Baptist Church from 1969 to 1972 before moving to the church he continues to preach at today, Little Brasstown Baptist Church. His education was placed on a pause for a period before he was able to take classes from Mars Hill through Tri-County Community College in 1978. He graduated with a degree in religion in 1983. By this point in his life he had four children, but continued his education through the New Orleans Southern Baptist Seminary which had classes in Atlanta. He was unsure of his exact graduation year but believes it was between 1990 and 1993 when he received his Masters. He taught religion courses at Tri-County Community College for a period in 1983 and then again in 1995 until the spring semester of 2020. Aud continues to be a full-time pastor at Little Brasstown Baptist Church.
Becky Brown (formerly Becky Myers) was born in Murphy, North Carolina in 1953 to Ralph and Betty Lovell Myers. She was raised in Brasstown, North Carolina. Her father is ninety-seven and remains in the home she grew up in today. She was raised in a firm Christian home where her parents were consistent and active participants in the church. Becky came to know Christ when she was seven and quickly became involved in church activities such as Bible drill and Truett Camp. She recalled that when she was fourteen or fifteen she felt called by the Lord to give her life to him in full time service. She didn’t know if that meant to be a missionary, nurse, or preacher’s wife but knew he wanted her to serve him wholeheartedly. She was married the weekend she graduated from high school to Reverend Aud Brown and went on to gain a two-year secretarial degree at Tri-County Community College all while giving birth to four children and assisting Aud in his duties as a pastor. For a period of time she worked at MOOG part time before getting a job as a pharmacy tech in 1990. Becky is now retired and continues to serve God in her community today.
—Taylor Cook
Taylor interviewed Aud and Becky for her thesis work on Granny Bell. In the video they talk of their lives, their faith, and share memorable stories about Granny Bell like her love of pranking people.
I hope you enjoyed the interview. I can’t imagine Brasstown without Aud and Becky in it.
Last night’s video: A Typical Day || Getting It ALL Done: Birthday Surprises, Work Travel, Bean Breaking & More.
Tipper
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TY I am enjoying the oral history project.
Papaw mentioned tobacco allotments. I have never heard of anyone growing tobacco in my area, for many years it was cotton. I have heard of cotton allotments. I now have the chain my grandfather would use to measure out these allotments. The chain is similar to ones use to hang a swing but has metal tags attached to it every so often for measuring- maybe every foot. I think he would sometimes work part time and measure out some of the allotments. This was before my time, I have heard a story of one of the neighborhood farmers committing suicide after having to plow up some of his best cotton after planting more than his allotment. No my grandfather was not involved in any of this.
My grandmother was married to A man named Aud once lol.You hardly hear that name anymore.
I’m sorry, I just can’t help it: “Nowadays, it’s a rather ‘Aud’ name, wouldn’t you say?” 😉
(No disrespect intended to any Auds or Audreys out there!)
Is Taylor’s grandfather’s middle name Lamon and her grandmother’s middle name Bernice?
I will ask her 🙂
I appreciate it!
Your tobacco allotment was a percentage of tillable land you had. I don’t remember the fraction. We only had ½ acre in tobacco.
The allotment was a land measurement not how much you could produce on it. The county agent would come out after you planted it and measure the space it sat on. If you exceed the square footage he would wait while you pulled it up.
The care you put into you tobacco patch was the determining factor in your paycheck at market. All the priming, topping, suckering, and worm picking resulted in a larger, heavier appealing product at the market.
Your return also depended on the market price at the time you sold it. You took your tobacco to an huge auction barn where buyers would come through, look it over, sample it and make you a bid on it.
I don’t know of any other government controls on your crop other than the acreage. Seems like there were certain sprays you weren’t allowed to use. Maybe one that killed the tobacco worms and another to stop it from suckering but I never knew of anyone using it.
This is just a little bit of my experience in tobacco farming and I’m sure others will see it a different way.
Growing up in Eastern NC, I was around tobacco growing all my life. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but as a teenager I did prime tobacco in the summer for local farmers. That was all bright leaf tobacco, not burley. IDK how far West bright leaf was grown, but at some point in the mountains I recall seeing mostly burley fields. Later, I worked for a company that controlled cigarette beetle and tobacco moth infestations in cured, stored tobacco in warehouses throughout NC. We used a fog machine 2 or 3 times a week to control ‘bug counts’. Those machines used a pesticide called DDVP (IIRC). It was nasty stuff. When infestation counts grew large, we sealed the warehouse doors, windows, roof vents an all other points of access and air ingress then shot them full of liquid cyanide that then off-gassed as it evaporated. I gave up smoking while doing that job.
What did y’all grow, papaw?
These interviews are wonderful! Yesterday’s was so good to listen to. ❤️ I am so glad you are posting them this week!
Sorry for y’alls driveway troubles, never ending struggle I know. About today’s post – I did not realize religion classes could be so near, even in relatively rural and remote locations from big cities. Aud seems to be a lifetime learner, as also does Becky. I would like to take some bible classes but have kinda assumed it is impractical here. Now you have me thinking I could find some at Truett McConnell which is about 15 miles away. Taylor’s work parallels a recent experience of mine in that I was interviewed by a doctoral candidate about aspects of my working life. I found it to be an odd experience in some ways because hearing your own self talk about your life can – for some anyway – cause one or more shifts in your thinking about yourself and your past It was helpful for me. I wonder if she found the same thing from anyone she interviewed. Anyway, it changed how I think of oral.history and its value.
My best friend from our freshman year in high school (’72/’73) lives in Gilbert, AZ and she and her husband, also from this area, keep track of my weather lol We laugh because our 14 yr old selves would never have imagined our today’s conversations. The storms that hit the Midwest were horrible, resulting in 3 deaths, so far. But they were way north of me, by 3+ hours. Around the Chicago area. Not a drop down here in west central IL. I’m happy to hear you’re all ok and so is the corn but OH NO on your beautiful new driveway. Having had my lane wash out 3 times this spring, I can truly feel your (Matt’s) pain! I was gifted a large bag of fresh peaches after swimming at my friend’s house yesterday afternoon. I made a fantastic peach crisp last night. I burned my tongue as I couldn’t wait once it came out of the oven. One of my favorite treats♡ Praying the storms have all moved on and out over the ocean. Happy Hump Day Acorns!
Hi Tipper! I am so enjoying these little snippets of Taylor interviewing colorful people. Everyone’s life is so different, and some have accomplished so much, and some have just pretty much remained at home raising their kids into a better life than they had. I could read these miniature snippets of people in the great Appalachian mountains all day! Ok, most all day because I have my chores to do, lol! What a wonderful idea Taylor had to interview these interesting people!! May God bless and keep you, and your family, and all your fans!!
Tipper,I hope the storms last night did not blow your corn down.
Kelly, thank you! It was a bad one. Corn is fine, driveway is a different story 🙂 I’m praying for all those with serious damage and injuries.